A week after Ottawa brought back visas for Czech citizens over the large
numbers of Czech Romanies seeking asylum in Canada, the Czech government
put out a report on the state of Romany communities in the Czech Republic
for 2008. The report is bleak: Czech-Romany relations are bad, it says, and
will be difficult to fix.

A 40-year-old Romany woman from the town of Frýdek Místek, in northern
Moravia, came to one of the town’s hospitals in 2007 to give birth to her
fifth child. Under pressure from a local social worker, she agreed to
undergo sterilization. This is allegedly the latest case of a Romany woman
having been sterilized against her will. If confirmed, it will counter the
general assumption that this practice, for which the Czech Republic was
repeatedly criticized by the EU, human rights watch groups and other
organizations, ceased some eight years ago. Elena Gorolová is the
spokeswoman for the Group of Women Harmed by Sterilization, an
Ostrava-based support group.

“In 2007, this woman was forced by a social worker to undergo
sterilization. The social worker threatened her that her children would be
taken away and put into a children’s home. The woman was scared, and
underwent forced sterilization.”

The minister for human rights and minorities, Michael Kocáb informed the
Czech government of the case on Monday. It underlined the bleak situation
of the Czech Romany as Mr Kocáb also presented his colleagues with the
report on the state of the Romany communities for 2008. The report says
that Romanies in the Czech Republic face general discrimination. A surge in
right-wing extremism, poor social conditions and a growing gap between the
majority and minority population is driving increasing numbers of Romanies
abroad. One of the authors of the report is Gabriela Hrabáňová, the head
of the government’s council on Romany issues.

“Since unemployment is generally rising in the Czech Republic, among
those affected are also Romanies. That’s one side of the problem. The
other is that the rise in extremism and the general attitude towards the
Roma are not getting any better. So the Roma simply no longer want to
experience discrimination against them in everyday life, and they decide to
leave the country.”

The report, and the news of the forced sterilization case, came less than
a week after Canada reinstated visas for Czech citizens. The reason is a
900 or so percent increase in Romany asylum seekers in that country this
year.

But some Czechs as well as some Czech politicians feel that Romanies are
leaving the country for the sake of getting more generous social benefits.
The town hall in Litvínov, in north Bohemia, wants to make sure that local
Romanies who left for the UK – another popular destination with Czech
Romanies, do not receive social benefits in both countries. The town’s
mayor, Daniel Volák, plans to send out letters to town halls in Britain to
bring the abuse to an end.

“I believe that adequate repression is necessary in this matter because
the system gets abused. Look, if people did not get the benefits twice, we
wouldn’t be doing this. But as long as there are people ‘parasiting’
on the system that’s paid for with public funds, with our taxes, our
duty is to take care of it, and repression is adequate.”

Mr Volák says his town does many things for the Romanies already. But
some of them will abuse the system all the same, and that should stop.

“We provide education for Romanies that is above standard; we have five
field workers here who explain to them exactly the social benefits system
but there are always parasites who will simply draw the benefits twice. And
these measures are aimed at them, not against decent people.”

Gabriela Hrabáňová, from the government’s Romany issues council, says
a new strategy of Romany integration should be ready by October. It would
provide municipalities with advice on how to treat poor living conditions
of the Romanies, bring them out of ghettos, and motivate them to send their
children to school. But Ms Hrabáňová also believes it would help if
people realized that there might be other reasons than social benefits that
make Romanies leave the Czech Republic.

“Those who go abroad seeking the economic conditions, it’s not just
because of their economic situation, but also their social situation.
It’s very much about being an invisible minority and living in a country
where your work, whatever it is, is considered important.”